Thursday April 9, 2009.  It’s been a busy week in AndreaLand.  I’ve been finishing up some personal projects which have kept me – surprise – at the computer almost around the clock.  Why would I spend my week off at the computer, where I spend 12+ hours a day working?  How is that different from the magazine work? It’s just a shift in perspective.  In my mind I am in a completely different place, so it barely matters where my body is, if my mind is happy.

Yesterday was my “official” day to water according to the new city rules, so I had the sprinklers and hoses going.  Moving them from bush to tree, it can take all day to get everything watered.  It’s also a welcome break to hear the timer go off, signalling I need to get up from my desk and go outside every hour.  The loquat and mulberry trees are now full of fruit, and full of birds and squirrels clamboring for them.  I took a walk around at sundown yesterday, as I usually do, checking everything out.  There was so much critter activity that I took my dinner outside to the wrought iron table and chair I sit at when I dine al fresco, just to watch the show.

It was chilly yesterday, so I’d made a bean soup earlier, with lots of onions, as well as celery, carrot and a stewed tomato base.  I like lots of spices in my soups, so I always use garlic, cumino, thyme, dried or powered oregano, a couple of bay leaves.  In soups with a tomato base, which I don’t often eat, I also use tarragon, and some fresh rosemary or basil as well.  I buy giant bags of fresh sweet basil at the oriental markets for $1.00 a bag.

As I heated my soup to take a bowl outside, I made a wrap sandwich to go with it.  I took a spinach wrapand placed it in the big frying pan to heat and soften.  I took some fresh spinach out of the fridge, with some carrot matchsticks and the 10 minute hummus I make every few days.  When the wrap was warm and soft, I put a blob of hummus in the middle and spread it around, tossed some spinach leaves on top of it, another blob of hummus, carrot matchsticks on top of that, and another blob of hummus on top of it.  I rolled it up and took it outside with my soup.  It’s my healthy, New Millenium version of rolling one to enjoy at the end of a long day *smile*

As I sat outside and watched the critter activity, it seemed everyone was enjoying the party.  A fat young raccoon, who typically stays hidden until after dark, came ambling by and I watched his antics as he climbed into the mulberry tree.  From where I sat, he was completely hidden by the heavy leaf coverage, and I could only tell where he was by the branches getting lower as he bumbled across.  I could also tell where he was headed next, since I am the one who trims those branches, so I know which limbs crisscross onto others.  I always make sure when I am trimming branches to be mindful of which ones are the major highways for the squirrels so I don’t take their favorite routes away.  After all, this is their yard, too.

I had not seen the mama cardinal for a few days, so I took a peek into the nest.  I saw one lone egg.  Last week I’d noticed her visibly making her nest very low in the eleagnus bush right at my back porch door, where the cats come in and out all day long.  I have to be careful when trimming my hedges to look for cardinal nests.  This one was well hidden, so when I trimmed the hedge, I exposed more of it than I would have had I seen the nest there.

I wrote the mama cardinal a note asking her to please move her nest elsewhere.  Wrote a note??  What are you talkin’ about?? Years ago I learned a neat trick.  I had some ants who decided to move onto the back porch.  Then I saw one in the house.  That would simply not do, so I wrote them a note.  It basically said “Dear ants: I am happy to share space with you and you can have the entire outside and stay there, and  I will have the entire inside.  Thank you” Then I put a copy of the note on my healing bench.  That’s where I keep notes of who and what to pray for, then I pray the bench twice a day as part of my spiritual practice.

I’d written a note years before for some raccoons as well.  They’d begun thinking they could just walk in the cat door and help themselves to the cats’ food.  That would simply not do, so they got a note asking them to stay outside.  Both times, with the raccoons and with the ants, their invasion stopped that day.

So, seeing the cardinal nest so low and so near the cat door, I wrote the mama cardinal a note asking her to please move her nest elsewhere.  The day after the note was the last time I saw her near the nest.  I can hear the cardinals in the east woods but haven’t seen them at the birdbath for a couple of days now.  But there is a birdbath in the east yard also.  Last night I got the feeling she just abandoned the nest, and this morning I was lamenting the sole egg left in it.  I was sorry to see her go, but now I won’t be concerned about the cats and the whole circle of life playing itself out.  I took the note down 🙁

Update written 6 hours later: Mama cardinal is now happily perched on the nest!!!  I am so glad I took her note down! I called the kitties inside and overfed them, so they are now conked out in the front yard giving Mama some privacy in the back.

If you share space with any creatures and have a message you’d like to get across, write them a note.  Write them a note as if they will read it and understand it and obey it.  Trust me.  It works.

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